This is the 501st edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views. Previously known as the Green Diary Rescue, the spotlight usually appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Here is the May 24 Green Spotlight. More than 26,950 environmentally oriented stories have been rescued to appear in this series since 2006. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
Ohiodem1 writes—ALEC Restrictive Wind Farm Rules hold up $2B wind investment in Ohio: “An article in this morning’s Columbus Dispatch indicates that 2014 legislation, sponsored by Republicans Bill Seitz and Keith Faber, is holding up more than $2 Billion in investment in Ohio on clean wind power. Overly restrictive rules on wind-turbine placement have put billions of dollars of investment on hold, say government leaders from northwestern Ohio, who want to see the rules changed. The local-government officials teamed up with a wind-energy trade group today to call for the Ohio General Assembly to undo the restrictions that were put in place three years ago. A few years ago, 2014, I believe, ALEC proposed model legislation to impose highly restrictive setback requirements on the placement of wind turbines with the purpose of significantly reducing where wind farms could be placed. Now we are seeing the impact of that legislation, which Bill Seitz, then the Ohio chairman of ALEC, sponsored, and in fact, because they couldn’t pass the legislation cleanly in a bill directly addressing the issue, they sneaked it into other legislation, a common ALEC trick to get bad legislation in through the back door.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Walter Einenkel writes—The good news is that fewer U.S. honeybees died last year, the bad news is ... the Republican Party: “Our previous administration had begun to implement protections for the honeybee populations that suffer from a variety of issues, both man-made like pollution and pesticides, and natural ones like parasites. Before President Obama left office, realizing the man with the Midas Touch was coming into office, he added the first American bumblebee to the Registry of Endangered Species. The incoming Trump administration, however, would need to undertake a lengthy process to declare the rusty-patched bumblebee population recovered if it wished to reverse this week’s decision, and it would be required by law to justify its action on scientific grounds. [...] Whether it’s all our fault or a mixture of our demands coupled with our bad environmental practices, bees are canaries in the coal mine so to speak, and healthier bee populations means healthier environments for humans as well.”
6412093 writes—The Daily Bucket--Did Anaïs Nin Say it Best? ”The first water lily of the year just bloomed in my 12 year-old-backyard pond. Years ago I brought home white and yellow lilies, purple irises, and two rushes, from the golf course ponds where I work part time, and planted them in this, the Lily Pond. The lilies had thrived, the others survived. I’m happy to seem the lilies begin blooming after this hard winter and old spring. This pond once had chorus frogs, but the bullfrogs wiped them out. A few determined chorus frogs returned this Spring and laid eggs. If the eggs avoided the goldfish, maybe the native frogs can recolonize the pond. Here’s a wider look at the pond, compared to an earlier picture.”
Dan Bacher writes—California and Oregon governors request salmon fishery disaster declaration: “A day after scientists and leaders of commercial fishing groups, Tribes and recreational angling organizations and scientists testified at a Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture Salmon Hearing at the State Capitol in Sacramento, California Governor Jerry Brown and Oregon Governor Kate Brown sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross requesting declaration of a catastrophic regional fishery disaster and commercial fishery failure for salmon in their states. The May 24th declaration begins the process for requesting federal aid to assist commercial salmon trollers and salmon-dependent businesses that continue to suffer from collapsing salmon populations, spurred by a combination of poor ocean conditions, water diversions and questionable state and federal water management during the historic drought.”
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - wildflowers at eye-level: “Most of the earliest wildflowers in the PNW, excepting Salmonberry and RedFlowering Currant, are tender annuals or herbaceous perennials. I invariably get a crick in my neck looking down searching the ground for color, or have to kneel carefully and creakily in the grass to see those blooms: Satinflower, Calypso, Broomrape, BlueEyed Grass, Camas, SpringGold, etc etc. Now the woody and vining natives have started flowering prolifically, and it’s a luxury to get good close looks at their blooms at eye level. This Bucket shows some that are blooming right now in my neighborhood. The Queen of Flowers is Nootka Rose. The Nootkas have just begun their bloom this year and you can smell their delectable aroma everywhere you go.”
richholtzin writes—El Malpaís, El Morro, and Fisher Towers: “This is the eighth diary installment of The Dkos Road Tour Series. (And now making an appearance on Saturdays rather than Sundays.) See explanation at the close of this diary. I trust you will find the information enjoyable and educational. Our destinations today will take us, first, to Western New Mexico, then close to that vicinity, and from there to West-Central Utah. As a reminder, the information herein is “layered.” Meaning, the reader chooses how much or how little read, graduating from the essentials to more in-depth details. [...] El Malpaís NATIONAL MONUMENT. Western New Mexico. [...] El Malpaís (pronounced ‘L mal-pie-ees’) NM is a rough landscape entirely covered with a serrated lava foundation that isn’t easy to walk on. The designation, ‘El Malpaís,’ is a Spanish term for badlands. The lava beds were produced from local eruptions dating from 115,000 to 3,000 years ago. Adjoined to the Zuñi-Bandera volcanic field, lava flows here have since been covered with scattered trees and bushes and sort of mimics Flagstaff's Sunset Crater’s lava flows. Although large areas of El Malpais is devoid of vegetation, some plant species have managed to root and sprout. Several cinder cones and smaller craters are found in the area, mainly along the western boundary.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
Walter Einenkel writes—Fossil fuel industry freaking out about Children's Climate Change lawsuit and want out: “Over two years ago now, 21 children filed a lawsuit against the United States of America for infringing on their constitutional rights to having a stable climate and environment—something that United States has been dragging its feet on doing for the past few decades. Last November they received a big victory when a federal district court judge in Oregon struck down the government’s motion to dismiss the case. An interesting bit of history here is that the powerful fossil fuel lobbies that decided to “help” the government by stepping in to attempt to get the case dismissed now want to slink quietly away, and according to Inside Climate News, they have asked a federal judge “for permission to withdraw” from the case. [...] Julia Olson, one of the lead counsels for the plaintiffs and executive director of the environmental group Our Children's Trust, said the industry lobbyists are seeking to withdraw in order to avoid handing over potentially damaging information.”
Pakalolo writes—Greenland glacier slides through its interior like a freezer pop slides through plastic casing: “NASA has revealed in a new study that a previously unknown mode of ice loss has been discovered at Rink glacier which is located on Greenland’s west coast. Carol Rasmussen of NASA's Earth Science News Team reports that in the years 2010 and 2012, which were the hottest summers on record, not only caused the snow and ice on Rink glacier to melt faster but also caused the ice stream to ‘slide through the glacier's interior in a gigantic wave, like a warmed freezer pop sliding out of its plastic casing. The wave persisted for four months, with ice from upstream continuing to move down to replace the missing mass for at least four more months.’ This four month long meltwater pulse is now known as a ‘solitary wave.’ Scientists warn that the discovery has ‘the potential for sustained ice loss in Greenland as the climate continues to warm, with implications for the future rate of sea level rise.’”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Signs of the Times: Science Hoaxes, Intentional and Lomborgian: “Over at Breitbart, James Delingpole has found what may be his perfect story. Combining his hate of climate science with gender studies denial, dear James tells us about the latest Sokal-style hoax. (A Sokal hoax refers to an incident in the 1990s where a researcher submitted, and got published, a paper consisting of randomly generated postmodern jargon.) Writing about a deliberately nonsensical paper focused on critiquing gender studies, which referenced climate as one example of ‘the conceptual penis as a social construct,’ Delingpole chose the elegant headline ‘Penises Cause Climate Change’ for his piece. The relevance here is that deniers like Delingpole are pointing to the hoax-y paper as an example of just how unreliable peer-review publishing actually is. But the authors note the paper was rejected from one journal, and only found publication in the type of “pay-to-publish” predatory journal they set out to criticize--hardly proof of lax standards in the academic community, and far from an indictment of the rigorous of journals that publish real climate science.”
A Siegel writes—Hillary Clinton hurt climate-denier Bret Stephens' feelings: Good for her: “Hillary Clinton is emerging into more public engagement. There was her strong speech at Wellesley earlier today (full video after the fold). And, here is an engrossing New York magazine article Hillary Clinton Is Furious. And Resigned. And Funny. And Worried. Much of that article focuses on 'why', just why is misogynist Donald Trump in the Oval Office. [...] The press, she believes, didn’t make it any easier. “Look, we have an advocacy press on the right that has done a really good job for the last 25 years,” she says. “They have a mission. They use the rights given to them under the First Amendment to advocate a set of policies that are in their interests, their commercial, corporate, religious interests. Because the advocacy media occupies the right, and the center needs to be focused on providing as accurate information as possible. Not both-sides-ism and not false equivalency.” False equivalency ... as per giving equal weight to a peer-reviewed climate scientist and an industry-paid science-denialist lobbyist so that 'both sides' get equal time.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
RLMiller writes—California Democrats Pledge Not To Take Oil Money: “This past weekend, I helped convince two California Democratic members of Congress—and several more candidates for governor and Congress—to pledge to stop taking fossil fuel money at the annual state party convention. I asked electeds and candidates who wanted to speak to the party’s environmental caucus, which I chair, to sign a pledge not to take oil money over $200, and to instead prioritize Californians’ public health over oil industry profits. And they did! Nanette Barragan (CA-44), who Climate Hawks Vote endorsed in 2016, proudly signed - and she’s doing excellent work in Congress so far on environmental justice. Ro Khanna (CA-17) signed, as part of his principle not to take money from any PACs. [...] And, perhaps most interesting, state Senate Pro Tem Kevin DeLeon — who is a fierce climate hawk, who is fundraising for something, and who launched a well-made video on the #CAResistance — signed the pledge. As did Tom Steyer, who is likewise weighing a run for something.”
Walter Einenkel writes—Author of the Endangered Species Act calls GOP 'ignoramuses' who couldn't 'pass the Lord's Prayer': “For some time now we have known that the Republican Party does not simply represent big oil and big Koch brother—they represent it to the detriment of anybody and everything else. In fact, they almost seem to despise everything else so much they are willing to destroy everything in the hopes of staying in the good graces of big industry. With the ascension of a true idiocracy, Republicans believe they can finally rid us all of 1973’s Endangered Species Act. Former Michigan Democratic Rep. John Dingell was the author of the act and was recently interviewed by Christopher Ketcham for National Geographic. Dingell doesn’t mince words. [...] Asked if the Congress could pass the Endangered Species Act today: “’ don’t think I could pass the Lord’s Prayer in that nuthouse,” he told me, referring to Congress. “The ESA was written so that scientific principles would be used to protect species. Science would make the decisions, science would decide the case. Today we have a bunch of antiscience ignoramuses and vicious lying people in Congress. And we’re going to pay a hellacious price.’”
ENERGY
Meteor Blades writes—Four climate protesters arrested for disrupting rubber-stamp energy agency's confirmation hearing: “Since February, with only two sitting members, the five-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been without a quorum. That has meant it can’t do its job, which is to approve and regulate interstate oil and natural gas pipelines, the transmission and wholesale sales of electricity, approve liquefied natural gas storage facilities and license non-federal hydro-electric plants. That paralysis suits anti-fossil-fuel activists just fine. They’d like FERC to remain hamstrung. [...] Five protesters therefore were on hand Thursday at a confirmation hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for two new FERC commissioners, Robert Powelson and Neil Chatterjee. After chanting slogans such as “FERC is killing Pennsylvanians” and “Shut FERC down,” four of the five were arrested by Capitol police and charged with obstruction. One paid a fine and three were detained overnight for arraignment Friday. It was not the first such protest, but usually protesters are hustled out on the room and let go instead being arrested.”
Fossil Fuels
First Amendment writes—Donald Trump's Chief Economic Adviser: 'Coal doesn’t even make that much sense anymore': “The great Donald Trump grift continues. Coal country is out of luck under Trump. Gary Cohn, Trump’s chief economic adviser, says that coal doesn't make sense anymore. Cohn says clean energy is the way to go to grow the economy and be environmentally friendly. This is the truth, which is in very short supply in this administration.”
Renewables, Efficiency & Conservation
Martin Smyth writes—Really, Really Great News! “This may sound a wee bit melodramatic but something just happened that changes everything. The discovery of fire, the wheel, electricity and fossil fuels, combined with our self-destructive nature, actually doomed mankind and the earth to extinction. In the past few years we pushed our atmosphere beyond a sustainable level of CO2 (400ppm). Our planet is hanging on by a thread. But something truly amazing just happened. In January 2017, China announced the cancellation of 104 new coal-fired power plants, which would have produced about the same amount of coal energy currently produced in the United States. [...] And then, this happened. Tucson Electric just signed a record power purchase agreement to buy solar power at under 3 cents per kilowatt hour ($30 per megawatt hour). This cut U.S. solar prices in half, well below any other available source. The average U.S. residential price for electricity is nearly 13 cents per kWh, and the average commercial price is 10.5 cents per kWh.”
Walter Einenkel writes—California breaks second renewable energy record this year: “On May 13, 2017, California’s Independent System Operator (CISO), the state’s largest grid pulled 67.2 percent of its power from renewable energy sources. Early Saturday afternoon, renewable sources produced a record 67.2 percent of the electricity on the portion of the state’s power grid controlled by the California Independent System Operator. That figure does not include large hydropower facilities, which added another 13.5 percent. Based in Folsom, the ISO runs 80 percent of the state’s grid. Over 80 percent! Way to go, California. According to SFGate, the previous record was 56.7 percent back in March.”
Meteor Blades writes—Open thread for night owls: In Brooklyn, you can now sell solar power directly to your neighbor: “In Brooklyn, you can buy honey collected from an urban bee hive. You can buy lettuce grown atop an old bowling alley. And now, you can purchase free range, gluten free, fresh, organic solar power right off your neighbor’s roof. Brooklyn startup LO3 Energy is revolutionizing the way homeowners buy and sell electricity. They are making it possible to auction rooftop solar power directly to your neighbors, creating a market for home-grown clean energy. To understand why this is such a big deal, let’s take a look at the way power utilities have historically operated. Traditionally, a centralized utility would sell electricity to numerous homes and businesses. There was one seller and many buyers. Rooftop solar has disrupted that model.”
REGULATIONS & PROTECTIONS
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—The Scientific Integrity of Lamar Smith, Scott Pruitt, and the WSJ: “News that the #ExxonKnew suit is rolling along in court got us to wondering what Exxon’s stalwart congressional defender has been up to lately. So let’s check in on House Science chair Lamar Smith. To explain his consistently anti-science activities, we always point out the fact that fossil fuels fund Smith’s political career. But perhaps his convictions run deeper than money. In a story about the emergence of electoral challenges in Smith’s traditionally deep-red district, Sharon Lerner at the Intercept offers up a sad but pertinent piece of Smith’s past. In a section about why he’s an odd choice to head the House Science committee, Lerner mentions Smith’s deeply held religious beliefs: ‘Like many Christian Scientists, he seems to eschew medicine. (Smith’s first wife, Jane, who was trained in the Christian Science practice of healing through prayer, died in 1991 in a Christian Science hospice,reportedly after refusing medical treatment.)’ So Smith’s anti-science agenda might actually stem from something more than money.”
Lefty Coaster writes—Scientific Paper published refuting Scott Pruitt's ignorant notions about Global Warming: “EPA head and one man wrecking crew Scott Pruitt shared his ignorant notions about Global Warming in his written testimony during his conformation process . One of Pruitt’s claims was that planetary warming had leveled off in recent decades, lessening the urgency we should devote to the approaching calamity of of catastrophic Climate Change. Climate experts have refuted Pruitt’s false claims in a new peer reviewed scientific paper. [...] The study, in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, sets up a direct test of a claim by Pruitt, made in written Senate comments following his confirmation hearing, that ‘over the past two decades satellite data indicates there has been a leveling off of warming.’ ‘Satellite temperature measurements do not support the claim of a ‘leveling off of warming’ over the past two decades,’ write the authors, led by Benjamin Santer of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Santer co-authored the study with three Livermore colleagues and scientists from MIT, the University of Washington in Seattle and Remote Sensing Systems, which keeps one of the three satellite temperature data sets.”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
A Siegel writes—When it comes to boxed vs bottled water, choose the tap ...: “That ad sent me to Boxed Water is Better with the promises for planting trees in exchange for online purchases and social media discussions/references. (Wonder whether this post will get two trees planted.) WOW! Isn't that great, rather than those plastic bottles you can had 'natural' containers for your water. Wonder the web and isn't hard to find stenographic-like posts touting the benefits of 'boxed water'. Let's be more accurate in the description: • Boxed water is not nearly as bad as glass-bottled water and, in many (perhaps even most) circumstances, won't be as bad as plastic-bottled water. • In extremely few circumstances (exceptions are horrid situations like Flint ... with exceptions even to that) is real analysis likely to find that 'boxed water is better than (decently filtered) tap water. However, ‘Boxed Water is Not Nearly As Bad’ isn't that powerful an advertising slogan, with great prospects of carving into the >$100B/year bottled water market. The reality is, humanity has a bottled water problem. Seriously, people, who in their EFFing mind thinks that moving water from Fiji in a glass bottle to your restaurant table has anything to do with a sustainable future? So, let's be clear, bottled water is a disaster in its scope and reach (even as there are legitimate spaces for its work/use: think for a moment Flint, Michigan ...) -- damaging the environment, diverting meaningful resources from productive use, etc ...”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
Kishik writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol 13.20 ~Pooling Thoughts and Ponds: “In 2012, I had the back garden cleared out and moved the pond to its new spot. Five years pass, changed and expanded the pond twice. In 2015, I put in a stream — which was an utter failure. I was using leftover liner which then limited me to depth. The raccoons had a field day with their new found water playground! I did not keep it up and last year filled it in. sigh. Raccoons 1, kishik 0. But despite the stream failure (put in to attract wildbirds, especially after watching American Redstarts hanging out and diving into the stream in 2015, I knew that any water feature, pond or fountain, would make a variety of the critters happy. The space at the back of my yard is the quietest most peaceful area. I wanted a spot in the yard that felt separate from the rest of my property — yes, like a secret garden (ok, I read that book by Frances Hodgson Burnett at least a million times when I was a kid!)”
MISCELLANY
GreenpowerCA writes—This Week in the Environment 5.25.17: “Welcome back for our fourth edition of This Week in the Environment, Greenpower’s weekly breakdown of the environmental stories we find most fascinating and timely. As usual, our Ph.D environmental scientist, Jon, has scoured news sources far and wide to find and bring you an array of great stuff. This week, we see a theme emerging surrounding the ever growing strength of renewables versus the fading relevance of fossil fuels...even as nefarious subsidies for that industry cost American taxpayers billions. We invite you to take some time out to see what’s happening on the planet, and we hope you enjoy.”